I
want to thank Prof. Dr. Necdet Osam, Rector of the Eastern Mediterranean
University, Prof. Dr. Naciye Doratlı, Director of the EMU Centre for Cyprus
Studies and Zehra Şonya, newly elected President of the European Mediterranean
Art Association, for the support they gave me for the creation and the set-up
of my exhibition, including the beautifully printed catalogue in two volumes
which contain all my work done in the years 2001-2016. I will never forget the warm words of welcome
and appreciation by Prof. Dr. Naciye Doratlı, Zehra Şonya and by Dr. Esra
Plümer Bardak, Vice President of EMAA. I was deeply touched. It was like an
order of merit I received from their hands.

I
also want to thank all those who took it upon themselves to come to the
exhibition from the other end of the island all the way to Famagusta, to the
R.R. Denktaş Culture and Congress Centre, a beautiful building near the Lions
Garden with not only a wide place for exhibitions but also theatres and concert
halls, which are also being used for international congresses. Irene Raab from
Kaleidoskop Turizm, has organized the transport for friends from Girne which
was for many very comfortable.

I
was invited to say some words and I took the opportunity to comment on the
importance of art and the World Art Day:

……First of all a
big thank you to you from all my heart and to all others who have supported my
exhibition. I am deeply grateful. My
thanks go also to the graphic designer Omid Kalantar who so patiently and
beautifully has put together my catalogue covering the years 2001-2016 and to
the EMU Printing House team who realized the catalogue in two volumes. The Eastern
Mediterranean University Center forCyprus
Studies and EMAA have for many years now dedicated their interest, their time
and work to the support of the arts, of artists because they have realized that
the arts – and here I mean the arts of all disciplines – are the glue that
keeps communities working in all fields of society life, politics, nature and
environment, it criticizes and balances out.

Many people ask,
what is art? What does it stand for? Is it part of interior design… Or a sort of philosophy? It is said that it
can heal people……

For me ART is
LIFE, it is life under a magnifying glass, it is made by people for people; it
is to understand matters of nature and humanity; drawing a person from life
over many sittings has shown me the many facets of a model’s personality.

Art is as old as
our globe. With the urge to express themselves, the cavemen took stones to
scratch their experiences into rocks….or to record historical events…. the
armies of early wars took hired painters with them, explorers did. Art is a
form of science, it researches things to the very bottom and uses the results
in various directions; it develops the human senses and makes people see behind
the curtain. Often it is not for the pleasure of our eyes. Art has become a
very important means of worldwide communication with the many international art
events; in my early days there was only the famous Venice Biennale, then the
Manifesta in Cologne, now we have Biennales in almost all countries of the
world. International Art colonies have become the fashion and artists are
invited around the world for interesting art workshops. I have watched this
phenomenon also here in North Cyprus, with many of our artists regularly going
to such events, even to Korea, China and Japan, but we also have international
art workshops on the island, I have many times written about them, and thus we
get to know artists and their work, their thinking and culture first hand.

It has always
been my wish to share and to support art and artists because I believe in the science
of art, to help educate young…. and old – you are never too young or too old –
in our Thursday Art group we have members of much over 80 years, which I am
approaching myself very fast.

The artists who
give their devotion and time to teach art have my greatest respect. Art not
only makes people see and trains them to use their senses fully, it makes them
happy, or rather fulfilled, it gives children and adults self-confidence, keeps
them away from nonsense and electronic games and dreams.

It is World Art
Day today, a reason to think about its worth.

There is still
so much to see and to learn, for example what material people are made of, they
carry in them the secrets of the soil they were born on, what shadows are on
their souls through the daily events that are thrown in their way. It is people
that make the culture of a country, all members of society are creators in one
way or another and we need to respect and recognize all of them, it is a
country’s language. I think this is the main purpose of making art.

However, we need
to give the island’s art a home, a museum, it is my deep wish on this very
special day, it is the most important infrastructure for the island’s culture,
not only for its own people and the future generations but for those who come
here as artists, residents or visitors.

I wish you a
good evening and good and fruitful talks on this matter.

As Dr.
Naciye Doratli told me hereafter that in fact there was a museum planned and
collections of local art work had been started but it involves much work and
will still take some time. I was very happy to hear that.

So
far the public is kept informed by private initiatives only, such as exhibitions,
reviews in newspapers and television, books on local art and lectures. I had a
project running for several years in cooperation with the artist Nilgün Güney
to talk to German speaking tourists about the local art scene, the bi-communal
activities and the institutions that were active in the education and
furthering of art, such as EMAA…but this is not enough.